


Something Constant

by electric016



Category: Zero Escape (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, Philosophy, Slice of Life, ZEcret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 01:00:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21938752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/electric016/pseuds/electric016
Summary: A typical night with Junpei and Akane spent cooking dinner and discussing philosophy.
Relationships: Kurashiki Akane/Tenmyouji Junpei
Comments: 3
Kudos: 16
Collections: ZEcret Santa 2019





	Something Constant

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for ZeroIV4 on tumblr for the 2019 Zecret Santa Gift Exchange. They requested "Akane going on yet another pseudoscience rant to Junpei." Well, this isn't pseudoscience, but hopefully a philosophy discussion will do the trick!

“So you’re cooking tonight, right Junpei?” Akane asked, leaning on the counter.

“What? Why do I have to do it?”

“Becaaaaaause, I checked the timelines, and if I cook dinner, the fish gets burned.”

“Oh, come on! That’s ridiculous.” 

“Um, I don’t think so. You don’t want burned fish do you?”

“Well there’s got to be at least one timeline where the fish gets burned, right Akane? Maybe it’s worth burned fish for me not to have to cook.”

Akane stuck her tongue out at him. “But I already got the rice started!”

“You mean you turned the rice cooker on?” 

Akane nodded.

Junpei sighed. “Fine, fine. I’ll cook. But just know, you’re abandoning some other Junpei and Akane to a timeline where we eat burned fish.”

“I’ve made my peace with that,” Akane said with a grin. 

As Junpei got started on dinner, Akane pulled up a stool and sat to keep him company, leaning against the island counter.

“You know, I was talking to someone about timelines the other day at work.”

“Hypothetically? Or an actual timeline discussion?” Junpei asked, not turning away from cutting veggies.

“A little of both. We got to talking about Determinism.”

“What’s that?” Junpei asked. 

Akane often discussed thought experiments or conspiracy theories while he was cooking. He found it oddly soothing. Some people put on podcasts while they cooked, he liked to listen to Akane.

“Well, it’s the philosophical idea that every choice is determined by your experiences, so that there’s already a set outcome.”

“What, like predestination?”

“Hmm, I think some people interpret it like that, but that’s not necessarily part of it. It’s more like… hmm. What did you have for breakfast?”

“Uh, I had a bowl of oatmeal.”

“But we also have cereal and yogurt in the house. What made you pick oatmeal?”

“I guess I picked it because it was cold this morning, and I wanted something warm.”

“So based on what you know about timelines, there’s also probably a universe where you pick cereal and another where you pick yogurt, right? And probably also one where you choose to skip breakfast altogether.”

“Yeah. That’s right.”

“Well a Determinist would say that there are no other universes. All of the decisions you’ve made and experiences you had that led to you choosing oatmeal are all still in effect, so you’re only ever going to choose oatmeal. It’s not necessarily that it’s predetermined and you don’t have a choice in the matter, but more like it’s the only choice you’re ever going to make. Does that make sense?”

“Yeah, it actually kind of does.” Junpei replied, furrowing his brow and tipping the veggies into a saucepan. “Like if someone wanted to go on a trip, but they were afraid of flying. They’ve looked at it logically and know the chances of anything bad happening are slim. They consider that if they were to stay home, they could just as easily slip on the ice walking outside and die that way. So they decide to not let their anxiety get the better of them and go on the trip. From a Determinist perspective, there’s never a universe where they stay home and slip on the ice because all of their experiences and who they are as a person has led them to this conclusion--knowing everything they know, they’re not going to let their fear stop them from going on a trip in any timeline.” 

“That’s right! But it’s at odds with what we know about timelines, isn’t it? We’ve been to other timelines, we know decisions can have other outcomes.”

Junpei thought about this for a moment, turning the vegetables in oil with his chopsticks. She was right. At face value it seemed impossible for the two theories to be able to exist simultaneously.

“Okay, but what if hypothetically those timelines only exist to us through observation?”

“How do you mean?” Akane asked leaning forward with interest.

“Well,” Junpei said, thoughtfully scratching the back of his ankle with his other socked foot, “I guess, I mean what if we can only observe those timelines. It’s like we’re trains on parallel tracks. We can see into the windows of the choices next to us to pull information from them, but they’re actually entirely different. When we receive information from another timeline, that’s an entirely different Junpei and Akane. After all, you and I have only ever made one set of choices that got us to where we are now. Even when we Shifted out of DCOM, maybe we were always going to choose to Shift. As far as you and I know, we don’t ever not make that choice.” 

“What about when it comes to chance? What if I roll a die and get a six. Do you think there’s a universe where I could roll a five instead?”

Junpei didn’t respond as he added the fish fillets to the frying pan. He listened to them sizzle as he considered Akane’s scenario.

“Well. I suppose it’s possible to say it’s only ever going to be a six. Because the texture of the table, the force and angle of the throw are always going to be the same. The conditions which created the six aren’t going to change.”

“Jumpy, have I turned you into a Determinist?” she asked, a teasing tone in her voice. 

Junpei cocked his head to the side for a moment and thought. “Hmm, I’m not sure,” he said grinning at her, “It does make a lot of sense on a certain level, but you’re right. Our experiences suggest that timelines do branch from one another. Plus, I still want to believe there’s a universe out there where I’m eating burnt fish and didn’t have to cook.”

Akane grinned at him. “Well, maybe that universe is actually just tomorrow night. Thank you for cooking dinner.”

“Thank you for the company,” he replied, grinning back. “Could you help me dish this up?”

“Gladly,” she replied with a smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Also, in case you're wondering, I do subscribe to Determinism.


End file.
